Pivoting is a common reporting requirement - data is stored in columns and you need to present it in rows. This was a nice feature that was added to SQL Server, but you don't always know all of the values you need to pivot on. This tip looks at how you can dynamically create the pivot command to handle these unknown values.
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Table partitioning is a blessing in that it makes large tables that have varying access patterns more scalable and manageable, but it is a mixed blessing. It is important to understand the down-side before using table partitioning.
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A DBA may consider switching a database to the BULK_LOGGED recovery model in the short term during, for example, bulk load operations. When a database is operating in the BULK_LOGGED model these, and a few other operations such as index rebuilds, can be minimally logged and will therefore use much less space in the log
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This article shares some tips on using concatenation efficiently for application development, pointing out some things that we must consider and look at when concatenating values or fields in our queries or stored procedures.
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The Execute SQL Task of SSIS is extraordinarily useful, but it can cause a lot of difficulty for developers learning SSIS, or only using it occasionally. What it needed, we felt, was a clear step-by-step guide that showed the basics of how to use it effectively. Annette Allen has once again cleared the fog of confusion.
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in order to use the modify() method to delete data from typed and untyped XML instances, you must pass an XML DML expression as an argument to the method. That expression must include the delete keyword, along with an XQuery expression that defines the XML component to be deleted. Robert makes it seem simple, as usual.
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